Resilient cushion and support therefor



Dec. 13, 1966 so 3,291,530

RESILIENT CUSHION AND SUPPORT THEREFOR Filed Sept. 22, 1965 United States Patent 3,291,530 RESILENT CUSHiON AND SUPPORT THEREFOR Alfred E. Harrison, Barton under Needwood, near Burton on Trent, England, assignor to Vitafoam Limited, a

corporation of the United Kingdom Filed ept. 22, 1965, Ser. No. 489,358 7 Claims. (Cl. 297-452) This invention concerns a cushion support by which term we mean a member capable of being attached to the framework of a piece of upholstered furniture to support a cushion, seat back or seat squab. The term upholstered furniture is to be constructed as including seating such as road, sea, rail and aircraft seating both private and commercial.

The manner in which cushions have been supported in the past has varied considerably and recently it has been found that rubber or like material is particularly useful for the purpose.

It is now known to provide a platform of material upon which the cushion can be located. There are a large variety of types of cushion to be supported and, for example, the cushions used in vehicle seating vary in size, shape and use, namely some cushions form seat squabs Whilst others form back rests. The seats themselves may be bench type, individual or bucket type or many consist of a bench type squab with individually adjustable back rest parts.

In the case of transport seating using a platform the difficulties of attaching the platform to the seat frame have been overcome and the seat produced is found to meet the comfort requirements of the seat producers. The difficulty that is now found to exist is related to the manner in which a pad or pads of upholstery material are to be aflixed to the seat frame and platform.

It is the object of the present invention to provide a cushion support which may be moulded to any particular requirements in one operation to the desired shape and size with consistent great accuracy and at the same time is provided with means whereby an upholstery pad or pads and a cover therefor can easily be secured in position.

According to the present invention a cushion support moulded from a material which will flow when subjected to heat and pressure and will be resilient when cool is characterised in that there is provided, on one face at least of the support a rib extending along at least one side of a central area of the support, the rib being adapted to receive and retain a portion of an upholstery cover material and to form a location for at least one pad of upholstery material such as foamed rubber latex or synthetic foamed material.

The invention will be described further, by way of example, with reference to one practical form thereof, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view partly in section with parts cut away for clarity, illustrating a cushion support with a cushion located thereon, and

FIG. 2 is a section taken along line IIII of FIG. 1.

In the following description the production of a substantially rectangular seat base cushion support for use in the automotive industry will be referred to but this does not limit the invention to use in this manner only.

To produce a cushion support a two .part mould is used. One mould part is provided with a cavity of substantially rectangular shape having outwardly extending portions at the outer limit of which are slots. In the base of each slot are provided support means for a rod. The support means are so arranged that a rod thereon will become encased, except for a short central region, by rubher which is used to produce the cushion support. Spaced from three :sides of the mould cavity and parallel thereto is a continuous groove of approximately five-eighths of an inch in depth and one-eighth of an inch in width. The other mould part, which, in use, is the lid has a flat inner face.

To mould the cushion support apiece of uncured rubber compound is placed in the mould cavity. The size of the uncured rubber is less than the size of the mould cavity thereby to reducethe possibility of spillage from the mould during the forming and curing of the rubber. If necessary pieces of uncured rubber may be placed in the slots of the mould to ensure that there is sufficient compound present completely to fill the mould cavity and the slots.

Metal rods or the like are located, one in each slot and the mould lid is closed. The mould is subjected to heat and pressure to cause the rubber compound to flow and completely fill the cavity, the slots and the groove, and to cause the rubber to cure. After moulding, the cushion support is removed from the mould,-and, after trimming off any flash formed is ready for use.

To produce the upholstered seat base the cushion support 10 is secured under tension in a base frame 11 (see FIG. 2) by attaching hooks 12 to the frame 11 and to the exposed portions of rods 10a which are securely moulded into the ends of the tongue-like extensions 13 protruding from the periphery of the support 10. The support 10 is located in the frame 11 with the moulded rib 14 formed by the aforementioned groove in the mould uppenmost.

A pre-formed pad 15 of foamed material is placed in the central region of the support =10 and is located with three of its edges abutting the rib 14. A piece of upholstery cover material 16 such as leather is stretched over the pad 15 and is secured by an adhesive to the rib 14 and to part of the support 10 adjacent and outside the rib 14. The material 16 is folded back on itself and a further piece 17 of preformed foamed material is located on the support 10 and around the rib 14. The free portion of the upholstery cover material 16 is now folded over the further piece 17 of upholstery material and is wrapped over the base frame 11 and secured to the underside of the support 10.

The two pieces 15 and 17 of upholstery material extend to that edge of the support 10 which in use is the rear edge of the seat.

To ensure that the upholstery cover mate-rial 16 remains associated with the rib 14, hog rings 18 (only one of which is illustrated), may be provided which extend through the rib 14 and through the upholstery cover material 16. The hog rings 18 may be in addition to or replace the adhesive mentioned hereinbefore.

The rib 14 formed on the support 10, in addition to providing a surface to which the upholstery cover material 16 can be attached also serves accurately to locate the upholstery material 16 during the attachment of the cover material 16. Since the support 10 is moulded each seat base produced can be accurately padded and covered and be, for all practical purposes, identical to every other seat produced.

The invention is not restricted to the above details. For example, seat backs may be produced in a similar manner and in addition a bench type seat may be produced in which the support 10 would have ribs moulded therein to enable a front side and central roll portion to be produced with two spaced seat base wells or seat back wells formed therein.

I claim:

1. A cushion support moulded from a material which will flow when subjected to heat and pressure and will be resilient when cool, said support having an upper fiat surface including a central area and surrounding edges, a rib formed integrally with said support and extending upwardly from said surface, said rib being located along at least one side of said central area of the support and spaced a distance from its adjacent edge, and rib extending upwardly a sufiicient distance on one side to receive and retain a portion of an upholstery cover material and on the other side forms a location for a pad of upholstery material.

2. A cushion support as claimed in claim 1, including a plurality of spaced apart attachment points spaced along at least three sides thereof, and rod-like non-resilient attachment members connected to said attachment points.

3. A cushion support as claimed in claim 2, including tongue-like extensions along said three sides, said attachment points being formed at the outer extremities of said tongue-like extensions.

4. A cushion support as claimed in claim 2, including ahook-like member at each attachment point.

5. A cushion support as claimed in claim 1, including a pad of foamed material located within the area defined by the rib, and a second pad of foamed material located externally of the rib, said pads being of such size that collectively they cover the total area of the support.

6. A cushion support as claimed in claim 5, including an upholstery cover material secured to the rib and covering over the pads of foamed material.

7. A cushion support as claimed in claim 5, including a rigid frame to which the support is attached, said upholstery cove-r material being attached to the rib and overlying the foamed material pads and also overlying the frame and attached to the underside of the support.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,178,670 11/1939 Men-ge 5353.5 3,000,019 9/1961 Maurer 5-345 3,088,133 5/1963 WaXman 5361 3,161,436 12/1964 Hood 29746O 3,208,085 9/1965 Grimshaw 5345 3,217,786 11/1965 Earl 297452 3,237,214 3/1966 Grimshaw 5186 FOREIGN PATENTS 972,051 10/ 1964 Great Britain.

FRANK B. SHERRY, Primary Examiner.

CASMIR A. NUNBERG, Examiner. 

1. A CUSHION SUPPORT MOULDED FROM A MATERIAL WHICH WILL FLOW WHEN SUBJECTED TO HEAT AND PRESSURE AND WILL BE RESILIENT WHEN COOL, SAID SUPPORT HAVING AN UPPER FLAT SURFACE INCLUDING A CENTRAL AREA AND SURROUNDING EDGES, A RIB FORMED INTEGRALLY WITH SAID SUPPORT AND EXTENDING UPWARDLY FROM SAID SURFACE, SAID RIB BEING LOCATED ALONG AT LEAST ONE SIDE OF SAID CENTRAL AREA OF THE SUPPORT AND SPACED A DISTANCE FROM ITS ADJACENT EDGE, AND RIB EXTENDING UPWARDLY A SUFFICIENT DISTANCE ON ONE SIDE TO RECEIVING AND RETAIN A PORTION OF AN UPHOLSTERY COVER MATERIAL AND ON THE OTHER SIDE FORMS A LOCATION FOR A PAD OF UPHOLSTERY MATERIAL. 